Double delight - and disappointment - for Bellerbys at Pembrey

At the penultimate round of the British Rallycross Championship, Fuchs backed drivers Paige and Drew Bellerby once again each finished on the podium. But quite how they managed it was a mystery to everyone who watched, such was the battered state of their cars at the end of their respective Finals.

It was Drew who led the way – literally! – in her BMW Mini, with first place in each of her three qualifying heats.  She reported ‘no problems – either with me or the car, it seems everything is slotting into place today and I’m really enjoying this track’.

This put her in pole position for the Final, and although she was first into the first corner, at the second she was hit by Hawkes, causing her to spin out, which damaged her steering and suspension, and dropped her to bang flat last.  Nothing daunted, she set about retrieving the situation, with fastest time on each of the five remaining laps, relentlessly passing her way through the rest of the Mini field, to finish a hardly believable second, just a whisker behind David Bell.  Her grit and determination was rewarded with the ‘Driver of the Day’ accolade.

Sister Paige had an equally impressive start to her day, with two firsts in the heats, before lining up on the outside of the front row for the Final of the Supernational class in her Lotus Exige.

Another excellent start saw her jockeying for position on the first lap, but then she got squeezed in a racing incident at the beginning of the second lap and dropped 20 seconds to Ovenden and Thorne on that lap, and another 15 seconds on the third lap.  By that time, she had found out she had no brakes and the steering was deranged, but more importantly, she had worked out how to cope with these difficulties.  She too then gritted her teeth and got down to the serious business of passing other competitors, and finished the six lap Final in third place.

Afterwards she explained ‘I didn’t know what the damage was at first, so it took me a lap or so to get my head round it.  It (the crash) made a real mess – it took out the brakes, and I could feel the front wheels were all over the place because the steering rack was bent.  So I was really pleased to get third, because it keeps me in second in class in the Championship.’

The event will be televised by Eurosport and Channel 5 in the coming weeks.